We regret to say we were not able to interview City Council Candidates for the 2017 November election and will not be able to endorse candidates. Please carefully follow the candidates reasons for running for city council and vote for the ones you feel will be working for the interests of the Taxpayer. Our focus, of course is to keep the the spending and tax rate affordable for all the taxpayers.

Please vote Tuesday, November 7 and remember you only need to vote for the candidates you approve and do not have to vote for 9 candidates as noted on the ballot.

The Association of Portsmouth Taxpayers sought out candidates who were most focused on cleaning up the Police Department. It’s high time this is done, and the candidates we have chosen appear to be the best ones to do so. We applaud their intentions and hope we can applaud they accomplishments a year or two down the road.

Joe Plaia

Joe Onosko

School Board:

The Association of Portsmouth Taxpayers sought candidates who are focused on providing school services in a fiscally responsible manner, are oriented towards local versus federal or state control of our schools, and are concerned about student privacy and data collection issues. While no candidates fully meet our requirements, we have endorsed two candidates whom we believe are open to dialog on these issues, and to some degree have expressed some of the same concerns we cite above:

Gary Epler

Clayton Emery

Please support these candidates for election in 2015. Display their election signs and email us at: info@portsmouthtaxpayers.com if you would like to display one of our election signs on your property.

What would happen to your property taxes if Portsmouth rolled back spending to the level of 2010, or even 2003, for that matter?

Select a year and find out! Click HERE to go the tax calculator. (Note: Future tax calculations do not take into account changes in city and state revenues.)

This CAN happen with your help. With the bad economy now entering its fifth year, taxpayers are under increasing financial pressure with stagnating incomes, rising taxes, skyrocketing healthcare expenses, food and fuel inflation, and savings that yield almost nothing.

When Palo Alto officials asked for an independent study of Fire Department staffing, they had no idea the analysis would be performed by a veteran firefighter who belongs to the International Association of Fire Chiefs Continue reading →

The APT does it’s best to correct inaccurate city data, to keep local government honest and to provide credible sourced information for the public.

1) A new Portsmouth Patrolmans Union contract [Accessed Sept. 14, 2011, contract vanished from city site Sept. 28, 2011] was attempted to be jammed through with days notice to the public (contracts are held from public examination until a contract is released by city management according to city protocol). The APT successfully petitioned for more time until Sept. 19th 2011 for citizens to understand the contract – See HERE). Sept. 19th 2011 this new Patrolmans contract was voted down 5-4.

2) The Portsmouth Patrolmans Union contract expired in 2008, however often occurring automatic raises (step raises) were still paid. As of Sept. 25, 2011, the APT has found no evidence that step raises or other contract items were paid with any official council vote authorization. A letter to the city has been drafted seeking an explanation.

3) According to the September 13, 2011 Herald article HERE [Accessed Sept. 18, 2011], Police Chief Ferland said “the patrol officers received no pay increases in fiscal years 2009 through 2011″. However, a simple check with their base pay in the online budgets shows his statement to be incorrect. Clearly, the officers have received pay increases during this time period.

LOOK at the officers’ BUDGETED pay below. (Please note that their true gross pay paid by the city is often much higher than budgeted pay (also known as base pay). Go HERE to see the 2010 gross wages paid. [Accessed Sept. 18, 2011]). In public union speak these raises in pay are called STEPS – in the private sector we call these automatic raises.

So, this clearly demonstrates that EVERY officer received a pay raise in the form of automatic pay raises unions call steps or by being made to a ranking officer. The only officer who’s pay was lower than budgeted pay was NOURY, J – who appears not to have worked a full year. This is not explained in budgets. NOURY, J is listed for FY12 budgeted pay at $52,055 – another raise from FY11′s of $49,690.

Now, lets go over the * officers. These officers were, in FY09, at the top of their pay grade. In other words, they do not get any more automatic raises as patrol officers. However, let us take a look at the something many citizens are unaware of many of our city employees. They can make far more than what their base pay is. This is accomplished by many of the goodies provided in contracts.

The Portsmouth Fire Department has had the highest increases of any department – well over DOUBLE inflation over the past 15 years (1995/96-2009/10). From 1995/96-2009/10, the Fire Dept budget (mostly salary/personnel costs) went UP 112%. Inflation for these same years was 47%.

With calls made to several insurance brokers, we found that home owners insurance will not go up with the closing of a fire station or the loss of an ambulance.

Assess the true need for personnel.

Ask for bids from private Fire/EMT companies. Just having those figures alone would be an extremely valuable comparison. Consider augmenting the Fire Department with volunteer fire department personal, like many other towns.

The Fire Department is not hired to conduct advertising to advocate for it’s positions. It handed out flyers advertising the closing of Station 3 and has initiated an aggressive campaign.

Candidate interviews by the APT will be aired on Comcast channel 98 (PPMTV), October 21-25 and October 28-November 1, our first ever televised event! See the continuation of this article for the daily schedule.

⇓Scroll Down for Daily Interview Schedule⇓

We interviewed 20 of the 23 candidates city council 2013 election, 20-30 minutes per candidate. Interviews will be aired — two candidates each weekday — for two weeks, October 21-November 1. Airings are at 4:30 – 5:30 PM, and re-broadcast at 8:00 – 9:00 PM the same evening. Interviews will be available on the Internet the day following their airing on channel 98. Links to the videos will be provided below in the schedule as they are made available on the Internet.

We hope you enjoy the interviews and find them helpful in making your choices for city council this election.

Please donate to the Association of Portsmouth Taxpayers so we can continue our mission of taxpayer-friendly government in Portsmouth. Our members and contributors are unpaid volunteers.

The Association of Portsmouth Taxpayers (APT) will provide televised
interviews of City Council candidates conducted by APT members as a public
service to Portsmouth voters for the 2013 election.

Interviews are approximately 25-30 minutes in length, and will be aired on
PPMtv, Comcast channel 98 in Portsmouth from 4:30 to 5:30 pm as well as
8:00 to 9:00 pm October 21 through October 25 and October 27 through
November 1. Schedule of airings will be made available on the APT website,
the PPMtv website, and in the Spotlight section of the Portsmouth
Herald. Following broadcast, interviews will be available through the APT’s
website, portsmouthtaxpayers.com.

Interviews were conducted at Portsmouth Public Media (PPMTV) studios in
Portsmouth in late September and early October.

In the 5th Edition of “A View From The Press Box” I feature a few photos from Monday night’s City Council meeting (Feb. 3) This recent meeting lasted less than three hours, making it the quickest council this year so far. Despite its length, the meeting featured plenty of debate on several hot button issues […]

In the 4th Edition of “A View From The Press Box” I feature a few photos from Monday night’s City Council meeting (Jan. 21) Similar to the council’s first gathering earlier this month, the meeting lasted nearly five hours and featured plenty of debate on several hot button issues such as development, parking and the […]

In the 3rd Edition of “A View From The Press Box” I feature a few photos from the first official City Council meeting held Jan. 13. The meeting, which lasted nearly five hours, featured extensive discussion on how development is impacting the downtown. A View From The Press Box will feature occasional photos that I […]

In the 2nd Edition of “A View From The Press Box” I feature a few photos I was able to snap during the Jan. 9 work session between the Planning Board, Historic District Commission and Economic Development Commission. The work session involved the highly anticipated North End Project, which involves a WholeFoods, a hotel, conference […]

Welcome to a new series I’ll be kicking off here on the Portsmouth City Blog. A View From The Press Box will feature occasional photos that I take right from my seat in the Press Box at Portsmouth City Hall. I must spend hours upon hours sitting in Council Chambers covering everything from council business […]

Want to know how many DWI arrests local police made in Fiscal Year 2013? How about how many fire calls the Fire Department responded to? For answers to these questions and more check out the city’s FY13 Annual Report at http://www.cityofportsmouth.com/annualreport/AnnualReport2013.pdf […]

With the holiday’s fast approaching, here is some useful information that may help you as you attempt to navigate downtown Portsmouth looking for that elusive parking space. 1. Visit www.parkportsmouth.com for anything and everything to do with parking in Portsmouth, NH. 2. Beginning Dec. 16, motorists will be allowed to park for free at all […]

The Portsmouth Health Food Store is endorsing a specific slate of candidates in the upcoming City Council election. The candidates were selected based on their “deep commitment to Smart Development and preservation of the city’s historic character” Candidates endorsed by PHF include: Esther Kennedy, Bob Lister, Ken Smith, Jim Splaine, Jack Thorsen, Joe Calda […]